By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Mayor Bruce Harrell was so impressed by West Seattle Arcade during an Alki mini-tour today, he vowed to figure out how to better promote it and other beach businesses to the rest of the region – and even to tourists who visit Seattle from afar.
The arcade was one of four businesses Harrell visited during an invitation-only mini-tour that concluded with a Q&A gathering. We were invited to cover it, though the mayor’s staff set “no recording” as a requirement for sitting in on the gathering, so we don’t have video of that.
Harrell started his tour at Natalie’s on Alki, where Natalie’s son Vinny showed him how they make their popular drinks, including sugar-cane juice fresh-squeezed from cane grown, and imported from, a family farm in Vietnam.
Asked if they had any specific concerns with which the city could help, the Natalie’s team said no. But at the next stop, Fire Tacos, they expressed concerns about the bus stop/layover area right outside their restaurant’s front windows, blocking the view and leading to loitering.
While noting that Metro is a county, not city, system, Harrell promised to have his staff look into the stop-location situation. The restaurateurs also recalled a recent incident in which police had requested video from their security cameras’ outdoor views, and Harrell noted that the Real-Time Crime Center that’s about to launch will be able to utilize private cameras, with their owners’ consent: “We think that’s going to be a game-changer.”
Speaking of games, shortly thereafter, he was off to West Seattle Arcade, where the mayor talked with proprietors Elyssa and Matt Cichy and played two games, the Godzilla VR one shown above, and push-button basketball:
The Cichys asked the mayor to “keep Alki safe,” saying that crime/disorder is a major concern, while noting that their businesses – WS Arcade and Gary’s Place – were founded in no small part because they thought it important to give young people something to do. They also told him about working to keep their prices reasonable, after the mayor offered the unsolicited observation that an outside-the-city gaming business which shall go nameless seemed pretty pricey to him. He added that people should be coming to WS Arcade, and other Alki businesses, from all around the region, and cruise ships too. And he promised to return: “You’re going to see me back here with my posse.”
The mayor was then driven back eastward to the final stop, Christos on Alki, where invited business and community leaders were gathered, and City Councilmember Rob Saka sat with the mayor in the center of the room.
Unlike Saka’s High Point meeting on Wednesday night, this one was focused around giving attendees a chance to ask questions and make comments. Harrell declared that “supporting small businesses” was a priority. In addition to Alki businesspeople, those we recognized in the room included reps from Alki Community Council, Alki Beach Pride, A Cleaner Alki, Alki UCC, and the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. City reps included deputy mayor Jessyn Farrell as well as reps from SPD and Seattle Parks.
The mayor opened by touting recent drops in crime stats. Those don’t tend to address street-disorder concerns, though, which were brought up by one businessperson, who asked Harrell if he would be willing to shut down Alki Avenue to vehicle traffic in the summer, to eliminate stunt driving. “Not really,” the mayor replied, then asking for a show of hands if anyone else favored the idea; we didn’t see any go up. Another crime/safety issue raised was the difficulty in getting through to the non-emergency line for reporting some situations; city reps said they’d look into that (though it’s been said elsewhere that they’re staffing up the call center after attrition problems), and the mayor suggested AI might be a solution. In another tech topic, Harrell was asked about gunshot detectors; he said he remains a supporter but the city’s budget woes are getting in the way.
Another major topic of concern was unlicensed vendors on Alki, blocking beach access and taking customers away from the year-round bricks-and-mortar businesses. It was pointed out that these are not small one-off cart operators, but rather well-organized multiple-tent entrepreneurs. Suggestions for making the area less attractive to them included landscaping the “grassy sand” areas of the beach and installing some accessible parking spaces.
Parks’ Jon Jainga (at right in photo above), whose portfolio includes the rangers, reminded everyone that summer changes, including Alki’s earlier closing time, start one week from tonight, and said the rangers would be working later too, with their days split into 9 am-7:30 pm and 2 pm-12:30 am shifts. He said the rangers will be empowered to give unpermitted vendors “cease and desist” letters telling them to move, and if they don’t, they’ll be able to call in police “for citations and removal.” If they simply move off Parks land and go onto right-of-way, SDOT will be contacted to deal with that, he added.
WHAT’S NEXT: We’ll be following up to see what happens with a couple of key things Harrell (who is running for re-election this year) promised that his staff would investigate – including promoting Alki businesses and possibly moving the bus stop/layover location at 61st/Alki.
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